Should people who view or share child porn be ordered to pay victims restitution?

Federal benches are not in agreement.

A 1994 federal law makes full restitution mandatory in sexual exploitation cases. The law lists examples of qualifying losses, such as psychological care, lost income and attorney fees. The last item in the list: "any other losses suffered by the victim as a proximate result of the offense."

That's the phrase that has divided judicial circuits.

Does it imply that all losses must be directly caused by a particular defendant's viewing or sharing of child porn?

Yes, says the 11th Circuit, which decides appeals for Florida, Alabama and Georgia. That's why it's so hard for Florida child porn victims to collect restitution from the end users of porn.

No, says the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit, which sided last year with child rape victim "Amy Unknown," agreeing that she was entitled to collect from a stranger found with two of her images.

She listed losses of $3.4 million, including future therapy.

The defendant sought relief from the Supreme Court. Oral arguments are expected in January.

Very triggering. I have thought about what if there are pictures. I honestly don't know and the thought makes me sick. This would be huge in stopping the trafficking. Not sure that there are those abusing that wouldn't otherwise be doing it anyway. The child porn business is just a way of making money doing what they would do anyway.

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God grant meThe Serenity to accept the things I cannot change,The Courage to change the things I can,And the Wisdom to know the difference.

Even if the victims don't get restitution from the collectors, the collectors should have all assets seized by the government - including houses and savings and jewelry. CP should be the antimatter of possessions: you can own that, or you can own anything else, but you cannot own both.

This definitely has the affect of being triggering on me, but I am glad that this story has been put forward: it gives others an idea of what it is like to be a victim of this form of child sexual abuse and its lasting impact, and it may also be validating for fellow survivors to read about someone else's experiences. They will find commonalities in the story's description of the victim's experiences and after effects and feel less alone.

Stand up comedian Andy Andrist was a victim of child porn when he was a kid.

Andy Andrist - Warning: Some of his material may be extremely offensive to some viewers.

I became a fan of Andy's when I heard his story and started following him on Facebook. Once in a podcast I heard him say this of the images that were taken of him as a child....

(I'm paraphrasing a little here but this is what he said.)

"Those images are of me, so I'm the only one who should be allowed to posses them. If I want, I should be allowed to charge perverts $10 a pop to view them for five minutes. At the end of the five minutes, the images would go away and they would be shown an image of what I look like now with a message that would say. 'This is me now, asshole. This is what you're beating off to. Thanks for the $10. Now go kill yourself.'" Thought it was an interesting perspective for a victim to have. Peace,

Thanks for posting this! I'd never heard of this comedian--and I'm glad to hear someone who can find humor in this subject. He sounded a bit flustered after a few of the questions, but ultimately he kept it together for the whole hour. I'm definitely an Andy Andrist fan now!

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